A Love So Pure
by SabastianScott
Summary: Sometimes, life isn't fair. And sometimes, bad things happen to good people. And sometimes, the second chances we get have a dark twist to it. A twist we have to follow...
1. Chapter 1

**Ah, well, let's see if I can do this. This story serves a few purposes-most of it practice in third person and in writing a case. Don't let that sway you-I'm still serious about the story. I'm just mentioning that to tell you the writing may vary a bit chapter-to-chapter as I learn.**

**Well, enjoy. I hope.**

**I do not own Ghost Hunt.**

_**PURE**_

Third person POV

_**PURE**_

Time comes and goes, that much is true. You have your ups and downs, but in the end, as long as you can keep going you will be fine. Sometimes, that notion extends to the afterlife too. And sometimes, that doesn't actually work out too well.

_**PURE**_

July

Sunday

Day 1

Even as they rode up there Mai couldn't help but be nervous before they even set foot on the property. This showed quite clearly on her face, and everyone could pretty much feel it coming off her in waves. Yet it was still her that made them accept the client's case.

The client, well, they never actually met him. Or her. Like what was just said, the team never met their client.

Ichigo Tokina had been sending numerous letters and videos, urging the team to take a case at a lake house. No one would say it, but after what had happened with The Forgotten Children case and the Oliver Davis fiasco and finding Naru's twin brother Gene, everyone was a little hesitant about taking another case near a lake. In the end, the curiosity and severity of the case (not to mention Mai) compelled Naru to take it.

Even so, the young boss still was battling inner demons that revolved around his twin and his murder. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that this case was threatening lives he probably wouldn't take it. Fear of a lake, how stupid. But for Oliver Davis/Kazuya Shibuya/Naru, it was a very real fear. He would barely admit it to himself, but he felt that all lakes seemed to symbolize losing some of his most important people.

Speaking of losing important people, Mai had told them some shocking news before they left. "Guys," she had said in a nervous tone, "after this case, you guys might not see me again." She wouldn't say why, claiming that they'd understand soon enough, and that they wouldn't be in the dark too much longer. The team had let it go, but it still bothered them, Lin included.

Ah, Lin. The Chinese sorcerer was driving the van, not bothered by the silence. Rather, what was bothering him was Taniyama's sudden announcement from not even three hours ago. Truly he had grown a bit fond of her, even though something about her had bothered him and his shiki at first. Something wasn't quite right about her, but Lin decided that it was probably nothing, and it may relate to her powers. Eugene and Oliver had seemed the same way. Even so, it did take some time to get used to her strange presence. It was a very strange thing indeed on the occasions she's been possessed. It felt as if she were dead, not just possessed. But Lin decided there was no way she could be dead-she wasn't a ghost for sure, and she had a body that got hurt (a lot because of her luck). No, she was alive, Lin had decided. It was just her psychic power, that's all.

In the other van, Masako was actually thinking along the same lines. She wasn't sure about Mai; it seemed almost as if the girl was in between life and death, similar to a comatose patient who astral projected. However, Mai ran around and got hurt and lived just like everyone else. So, she let it go. Her train of thoughts then diverged. The medium had noticed that Mai seemed nervous about the case. Was it Mai's intuition coming into play? Masako pondered this in the mist of the insanity inside the car.

Yasu, in typical Yasu fashion, was bothering Monk. What was different this time, however, was that with Madoka here, helping Yasu, of all things, the man wasn't going to catch a break anytime soon. Since all the equipment was in the other van only three people fit in there, so the actual office members- Lin, Naru, and Mai- rode in that one. That left this van with Monk, Ayako, John, Masako, Yasu, and Madoka. So Yasu and Madoka were double-teaming against Monk, Ayako was trying to keep Monk focused on the road, John was trying to diffuse the whole situation, and Masako wisely stayed out of it.

Somehow, everyone got to the house without an accident. They got out and stretched, and looked at the house they were investigating.

This house was a bit strange in its own right. The woods around it were so thick that the roads had to be made around it and the other vacation houses had to be located on the other side of the lake. Driving up you had to go on a barely-there dirt road that was between the tree line and the loose pebble beach that surrounded the lake. The house had apparently been built when the forest was young, so it was like a sort of clearing all around the house, the overgrown yard, and the gardens that led up to the lake where a boat dock with no boat could be seen.

The information given to them wasn't much, so that was the first thing they would do after they woke up tomorrow-research. All they knew was that there are tons of hiking trails in the area, and place was believed to be a sort of rest stop. All the other houses are similar in design to this one, but unlike the other places this place was secluded and was not for rent; the reasons why were unknown. They have been dozens of unexplained disappearances over the years, and it had no signs of stopping,

Soon, all of the SPR gang was forming a semicircle around Naru after they finished stretching. "Everyone," the young boss ordered, "do not go anywhere alone. Do not go into the house no matter what. We have no idea what we're dealing with here, but disappearances are happening. Got it?"

Everyone nodded and started getting out equipment and pairing up. Everyone worked in silence setting up the equipment around the house and in the area, the only thing breaking the silence was Naru as he gave orders.

"Ne, Masako, do you sense anything?" Mai asked the black-haired medium as they worked to set up a camera looking towards the boat dock. Masako paused as she thought through her words.

"It's strange… most of the ghosts are simply urging us away, telling us to run. They don't seem to want to talk about what happened. But there is one ghost… he waits in the house, and I don't think he can exit. He's hiding from me, but is trying to lure people into the house. The only thing I can say for certain about him is that he is a malicious spirit," Masako said quietly.

"So, you can confirm spirits are here for certain?" Naru came into the conversation carrying a microphone. So he _can_ do manual labor…

Masako nodded. "Yes, not a single doubt. There has to be dozens and dozens of ghosts here…"

The other two nodded grimily-if Masako has already confirmed for sure that there were ghosts here, this meant this case was NOT going to be an easy one.

Of course, when was it ever?

_**PURE**_

Later, at the hotel, the girls shared a room and the boys split into two rooms. Naru was, of course, waiting until knowing the lake house was safe before going in it. Basic ghost hunting safety, really.

"Today is the first of July, right?" Madoka asked the other girls as they all got ready for bed and Ayako taking a shower. Madoka was still a bit confused-she had been on a plane from England no less than two days ago, so she was a bit disoriented still.

"That's right," Masako told her. Madoka thanked her and opened her planner. When she did she gasped.

"Mai! The third is your birthday! Why didn't you remind me?!" Madoka asked the teen from across the room.

Mai looked up from where she was searching through her suitcase. "Oh, right, my birthday is in a couple of days, huh? I don't really think about it much," she shrugged. Madoka then gave an angered groan.

"Of course you don't. Ya know, I should've guessed this too-Naru rubs off on you too much."

"What is this about Naru and rubbing?" Ayako came out of the bathroom.

Masako calmly answered, "Naru and Mai both don't care much for their birthdays it seems."

"And Mai's birthday is the third!" Madoka practically shouted.

The priestess stood there for a moment before reacting. "EH? Mai! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"To be fair," Mai defended, "I didn't tell Madoka either; she went through Naru's files and found MY file and wrote as much information she could before I found her."

"Oh, well then… Wait, Naru has a file on you?" Ayako asked, flabbergasted.

Now the brown haired girl sighed. "Naru's my BOSS, remember? He has to have an employee file on me, or else it's illegal. I think."

"What else is in this file?" Masako asked curiously.

Mai shrugged. "I don't know. Employee stuff? Ask Naru or Lin. Actually, better yet ask Madoka-she's seen it."

"Ah, right I have," Madoka grinned. "Naru not only has Mai's birthday, he also has all her emergency contacts, access to her medical files in the case of an emergency since she doesn't have parents or legal guardians, not to mention our often-times-dangerous line of work. He actually noted her blood type-"

"Her blood type?" Ayako questioned incredulously.

"Type B. He also has all and any contact numbers and her address," Madoka beamed.*

"Ah, well…" Ayako didn't seem to know what to say next.

It was Masako who spoke next. "How old are you turning Mai?"

"Seventeen now," Mai answered.*

"Hn, I wonder if any of the boys remembered?" Ayako wondered out loud.

"Can we just get to bed already? This case is so not going to be easy, ya know," Mai sighed.

"What makes you say that?" Madoka asked the girl.

"Well, Masako already is sensing the spirits and was able to get a decent reading on them, so… Ah, not that Masako is bad as a medium or anything, but-"

"It's fine Mai. I know my psychic abilities have limits," Masako saved the floundering girl. Said girl gave her a thankful look.

"Are you sure it isn't your intuition coming in? is there something you should tell us?" Ayako put in.

Mai frowned. "Who knows?"

Soon after, the whole group was asleep.

_**PURE**_

*** I looked it up- her blood type is B**

*** Mai turns 16 in the fifth novel or something like that. So she'll be turning seventeen.**

**Okay, so I know these chapters won't be long like the Blind chapters are, but for this story, it'll either by the day for each chapter or when a good stopping place in a day occurs.**

**BTW, don't kill me for not updating Blind. We're expecting a snowstorm, and we might lose power, so instead of getting into the anime episode when I don't have wifi, I'll just work on this. I made this a little while ago, so it's not exactly new to me. There's actually a few Ghost Hunt stories on my computer, just none of them are completed and I haven't worked on them much nor posted them. I'm trying to free up space, so I chose one at random to start uploading…**

**Well that's really all, so this is goodbye for now, and sorry this was sorta short and boring…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ah, I'm back again. This chapter… just… geez.**

**BTW, while there is definitely more categories for this than Romance and Supernatural, I really can't say much else except that I am not to be held responsible for your feelings or anything. Don't worry, this has a happy ending (or at least, it's supposed to), but there are a few… um… sensitive… moments. You know, people's past and what not… The usual for any love-centered story – someone always HAS to have a heart-to-heart about their past. Always fun, right? And, since it's Ghost Hunt, nobody is allowed a happy-go-lucky normal childhood. But that won't come in for a while, so don't worry.**

**Enjoy!**

**I don't own Ghost Hunt.**

_**PURE**_

They say if something comes in as a lion, it leaves like a lamb. Example, 'If March comes in as a lion, it will leave like a lamb', or another example is, 'He was like a lion when I met him, but now he's gentle as a lamb'. That leaves a question, though. What happens if something comes in like a lamb?

_**PURE**_

Day 2

That foggy Monday one could find basically all of the SPR team at a library researching through old books, documents, and newspapers for ANYTHING about the lake house.

"This is so boring!" Monk yelled-whispered as his head hit the inside of an opened book. He sat at one of the tables they were using, surrounded by various bookshelves.

"No worse than a math lecture," Mai shrugged, looking at two newspapers and comparing. A frown started to creep onto her face as she compared the two, and her eyebrows were starting to knit.

"Something wrong?" Yasu asked, carrying a stack of books from who-knows-where to another table.

Mai sighed, frustrated. "It's just… these newspapers aren't helping much," the girl admitted.

"Ah, don't worry Mai, where you and the rest are terrible at research, Madoka, Naru, Lin, and I will be sure to pull through," Yasu teased.

Mai sighed again. "Yeah yeah, at least YOU weren't stuck with going over all the newspaper reports of kids going into our creepy little lake house and never coming back."

"Never coming back?" Monk questioned, looking up from where his head rested in his arms. Yasu showed a bit of interest too,

"Yeah, these teenagers and kids all started doing tests of courage in the lake house, but almost none of them return. The ones that DID wouldn't tell of what happened; one even suffered total amnesia of the entire month before he went in and while he was in there. They all had injuries varying from bruises to broken bones to, in one case, a missing hand," Mai said, obviously grimacing at the last bit.

"I wouldn't call that nothing, Mai," Yasu said seriously.

"I wouldn't either if almost all of these newspapers just mentioned what happened. We already know about the disappearances and most of injuries-though the hand thing IS new. None of them tell WHY the house was used for a test of courage though. Even if the house was secluded, usually you don't go through so much trouble as to go an entire mile away from a main road or any help without a car just to scare yourself silly," she pointed out.

"Eh, true…" Yasu sighed.

"Take note of the victims and the severity of their injuries," Naru popped out of nowhere, carrying a stack of books like Yasu still was. "Yasu, research doesn't do itself," he scolded the glasses-wearing teen as he headed off to the table he was using without even sparing a glance.

"Yessir Big Boss," Yasu said, and probably would have mock-saluted if he didn't have the books in his hands. "Good luck Mai," he said over his shoulder as he walked off, following Naru.

Mai took one of the notebooks and one of the pens they had lying around and started copying down things from the newspapers. "Monk, either help me or start reading," she reprimanded the man without looking up.

Monk sighed and sat up and started once again reading through the book he had been using as a pillow. "I think you and Naru both get grumpy without tea," he muttered to himself.

"What did you say?" Mai looked up from her work.

"Ah, nothing!" Monk panicked.

Mai looked back down at the papers. "Right. Read."

"Okay Mini-Naru," Monk grumbled.

"Monk," she glared over her newspaper.

"Right, reading. Got it."

_**PURE**_

A few hours later, they gathered together at one of the library tables to compile their research.

"What did everyone get?" Naru asked from the head of the table.

"Fine I'll start," Ayako sighed from Naru's left when no one spoke up. "Masako and I didn't get anything. No boating incidents, no car accidents, and absolutely nothing on previous owners," she said, looking at her nails.

"All we gathered was that the building was built quite some time ago, maybe even up to seventy to hundred years old," Masako continued from beside Ayako, sliding their notes to Naru. He took them and looked at John who sat next to her.

"Ah, well, I checked with the local records. The people there gave me all the recorded graveyards in the area," he said.

"So I went and checked them," Madoka interjected from her spot next to Lin, "but none of the dates go back more than thirty years. Till recently, there hadn't been any towns nearby. The lake practically didn't exist to anyone who didn't take the hiking trails or heard from somebody who had, so any deaths would be recorded elsewhere and the bodies sent back to the families."

"Lin and I looked through any records they had on the hiking trails. No one knows who made them, same with the house. Some even claimed that foxes had a hand in it. They were prized and considered good luck, so people followed the foxes through the woods and, in turn, created the trails. About half the people that went through it came back, and the other half didn't, yet no police reports were filed for a long time.

"The trails were popular among teens especially, despite the obvious risk. The stories about the trails spread particularly fast in a few high schools due south from the lake house. That indicates where the beginning of the trails may be, since no map of them has been made," Naru reported. Lin nodded from his seat to Naru's right.

"I looked into the contractors who built the vacation houses," Monk said next, "Their reports say that a highway company found the thick woods and had trouble getting through them so they had to go around them. When they finally were able to get to the thinner parts of the woods, they ventured off to see if they could find out why the trees grew so thick in one part but then normally in another. They never did find out, or if they did it was never recorded, but they did find the lake and the house there. Someone's brother worked for the company that made the other houses, and called them up to check it out. Sometime later, the houses were built and a vacation company vouched for them. I tried to figure out why the company refused to rent out the original house, but I got nothing." When Monk finished, he also slid his notes to Naru at the head of the table.

"Interesting," Naru said as he caught the papers and put them with the rest of the notes he had received. "What about you Yasu?"

"Glad you asked Boss," Yasu grinned from beside Madoke. "Turns out that neither the bodies of the missing people from long ago nor recent have yet been found. Most of them are assumed dead, but no one has ever found a trace of the bodies. There's even a local group that searches for possible places-like a makeshift graveyard or something- but nothing." He looked towards Madoka. "I plan to steal Big Boss's boss later on to talk to them and other locals who might know something."

"Right," Madoka nodded.

"That leaves you Mai," John looked towards the girl who sat the other head of the table, opposite of Naru.

"I did the disappearances and the ones who came back from the house," she said quietly. "I had to go through lots of newspapers and old medical records from other towns, but…" she put a large pile of papers from her lap onto the desk, "I still haven't reached all the records, and I'm sure there are lots more."

"That many?" Lin spoke up for the first time.

"Yeah," Mai nodded. "Most of the survivors wouldn't talk, and most of what they said didn't make sense, but one common theme was there. 'Don't go in the sunset room when it turns red,' and 'Beware the lights.'"

"That was all?" Naru asked.

Mai sucked in a breath. "No," she answered. "There was one book with the mention of serial killers. I had had a weird feeling about that book all day, it just kept popping out. So I took a look through it."

"And?" Ayako asked.

Mai looked uncomfortable for a second before taking out a book, supposedly the one she mentioned a moment aago, and turning to a bookmarked page. "'Sesshomi Takiono,'" she began, "'a serial killer from the early 90s, made hiking trails and built a rest house near a lake at the end of the trail. He lured hikers in and maliciously murdered them. When finally confronted from over two decades of murders, 27 years to be precise, he killed himself, leaving a note that said, 'You can catch the body but not the mind' and a journal that detailed how he gruesomely murdered others. Legend has it that after reading it five police officers quit on the spot, another shot and killed himself in the station, and several others became violently ill before reading through the whole thing.'" She closed it and slid the notes and the book from her head of the table to Naru's. "It also talks about the ONLY two survivors from that time to escape and get the police. No one else made it out. No bodies either."

Everyone sat in silence. This house… could it be? Mai was staring straight at her lap as the others looked at her.

"Are you sure that that house and the one we're investigating are the same?" Madoka asked the question on everyone's mind.

"If not here, then where?" Mai said, looking up at the group. "The lake-the one we are investigating at and the one mentioned in the book- is Sessomi Takiono Lake."

_**PURE**_

Despite the entire team's reluctance, they went back to the lake house to check the equipment and change out the tapes and such.

What they got, well, they definitely weren't expecting it.

Just about all the equipment right next to the house got pulled in, and you could see the broken pieces inside. The equipment in there wasn't just broken though-it was completely demolished, and quite brutally so. Slash marks could be made out it the dimming light. After they had found the equipment like that, Naru wouldn't allow anyone near the windows of the house, and especially not alone. They left the pieces alone.

The equipment that was away from the house was a different story entirely. It was all pushed away from the house. The camera that was at the boat dock was now still recording at the end of the dock, and the microphone that Naru set up over there was standing in the water. Only the stand was in the water, and the wires were taut, so the microphone, just like the camera, wasn't in any way injured. Any of the other equipment in the yard, garden, or outskirt of the woods were moved at least six feet, if not more, away from the house, most of it moved until the wires that were connected to the generator were taut as could be. Even the generator was moved a bit. None of this equipment was injured.

"So what, there's two forces at work then?" Monk questioned as the group met up at the vans before heading back to the hotel.

"Most likely," Naru leaned against one of the vans. He made them move some of the equipment closer to the house while leaving some of it as they found it to see what would happen.

"So one is super violent then?" Mai questioned from where she stood to Naru's right.

"Based on your findings, Mai, that would be the murderer," Madoka responded.

"Right, so who would the other spirit be then?" Yasu questioned.

"If I had to guess, it would the murder victims,"

"So there are more than just two," John was reconfirming.

Masako lifted her kimono sleeve over her mouth and answered. "Right, I believe there are dozens of victims here, trying to get us to leave even right this second,"

Then suddenly, Ayako gasped and took a step forward. "Something wrong?" Monk asked.

"I just felt a hand push me," Ayako said, looking behind her to check if anything was there.

Nothing. Just empty space. Behind them they could see the sun starting to disappear behind the house.

"We should leave," Naru stated as he straightened up. Quickly, they all piled into the vans and drove off before sun could even get fully behind the house.

If they had stayed for another few minutes, they would have seen the house's non-existent lights brighten the windows and, in one of the upstairs windows to the far right, a man maliciously staring at the car while grinning like the madman he was.

_**PURE**_

**Slightly longer than last time, I'm proud. :D**

**I'm hoping that was an okayish chapter… in case you haven't noticed, I'm sorta winging this as I go… I know how I'll end it, it's everything between then and now that has me concerned… hrmp…**

**Thanks for reading**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three, eh?**

**Oh geez… Well, thanks for all those who followed, favorited, and reviewed. I love all of you!**

**I don't own Ghost Hunt. Mai might have ended up like she does in this story, or turned out to be a mermaid or something…**

**Enjoy! I hope…**

_**PURE**_

Soon, they had decided that the two forces at work were at complete opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to how violent they were.

Naru, in interest of the results the evening before, had made them come to the house almost immediately in the morning. Just like the day before, they were in different places from before. However, a couple of them actually moved closer to the house.

"It's so weird…" Mai commented as they all stood in a semi-line and looked at the large yard and the various cameras. "It's almost as if there's a pattern on the ground that we can't see…"

"A pattern?" Monk looked at the small brown-haired girl to his right.

"Yeah."

"How does that work?" Madoka questioned her next, leaning forward to look at Mai.

"Is this one of your dreams? Or a premonition?" Yasu asked, also leaning forward like Madoka, although not as much since he was closer to her.

"Ah, well, how do I explain this? …it's not a dream. I haven't actually had any so far. Rather, I think it's… intuition?" Mai said the last part as if not sure herself. Then she sighed, and pointed to one of the cameras. "See that one? Originally, it was right over there," she pointed to the left a bit. "It moved back, but it also moved to the right. Why is that?"

"I see," Ayako knocked her fist into her hand. "So the ones that moved forward instead of back might have been in the pattern. We did move a couple in a different place than the first day."

"Or," Monk pointed out, "Our other force, the one that smashed the camera, has gotten stronger."

"Like repulsion?" John spoke up.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, exactly," Naru joined in. "We've been visiting repeatedly and have had the cameras for three days now-if it was repulsion, we would have seen it sooner. The data doesn't show anything other than the cameras moving and voices."

"Voices?" Mai asked him. They ('they' being Naru, Lin, and Madoka) had been reviewing the evidence collected late into the night. However, they hadn't said anything about what they found. With Naru rushing them, they hadn't exactly had time to.

"Ah, right, when the cameras were moved, you could hear lots of voices saying to leave," Madoka said in her oddly cheerful tone. Then she seemed to somber up a bit as she said, "There was also quite a bit of screaming."

"Screaming?" Yasu asked.

"Yeah," Madoka nodded. "Really painful screaming."

"Painful screaming?" Masako inputted for the first time.

"Yeah. The ghosts were in pain; that much is obvious. By the sounds of it, they were in lots of it, too," Madoka frowned.

"There was also some laughter," Lin said.

"I would NOT call that laughter, Lin," Madoka turned to him and pointed a finger. "Laughter is _joyful_. That was crazed ax-murder-sadist _cackling._ Not laughter."

"Regardless of what you call it," Naru said, turning everyone's attention towards him, "that's what the mics picked up."

"Considering the evidence Mai got us yesterday, we could very well assume that we _did_ pick up an ax murderer cackling at his victims screams of pain," Yasu pointed out.

"Not…" Mai murmured. Everyone turned to the young latent psychic. She had a faraway look on her face, as if reliving a moment, daydreaming, or just not _there_. "Not… an ax… too… kind."

"Mai?" Monk questioned, then waved a hand over her face. "Hello? Anyone home?"

"Only… occasionally…" she said. She closed her eyes and she fell limp. Quickly Monk and John, being the closest, caught her. The trio ended up on the ground, and Monk leaned Mai onto John's chest while he tried to wake her up.

"Mai? MAI!" Monk shook her slightly. The girl sat up quickly after a second.

"WHAT? Oh, Monk…?" She looked behind her. "John?" Mai then looked up at the others that had quickly came over to them. "Why are we on the ground?" she asked the group. "What happened?"

"Do you not remember?" Madoka, who had her hands on her knees as she leaned down slightly, answered. "You told us that an ax was only used occasionally."

Yasu smiled like a Cheshire cat. "She's done it again!" he said, "Looks like Mai had a premonition while she was awake. Now you can find us information without napping!"

"Ha, funny," Mai said sarcastically, then seemed to look over past the group. "Masako? What are you doing?"

The group turned around to see the famous medium to be over a few meters away, hand slightly extended. She wasn't that close to the house, but still there was a bad feeling about what she was doing that far from the group. Slowly, she extended one hand over to the house while another stayed right over her mouth in typical Masako style. Then, as if she had touched an open circuit, she pulled her hand back as a small shock of light sparked where her hand was. She yelped and fell to her knees, clasping her hand.

"Masako!" Yasu yelled as he and John quickly ran over. Together they helped the smallest member of their group to her feet.

"No… closer…" Masako coughed into her hand. "I'm practically choking on the energies and sadness here, not to mention the strong cords of mania and revenge. Please… no closer."

Nodding, the two boys helped her back to the vans. They set her inside of one of them-the one Monk drove, to be exact- and let her lay down in the back. The boys jumped out and, before they could shut the door, Mai jumped in.

"What happened back there? Are you okay?"

After a moment, Masako opened her eyes and looked at Mai before lightly putting a hand over her mouth. "It felt… strange… when you had your premonition a few moments ago. I decided to investigate, but when I got there I was blocked by something, and this happened," she answered while referring to herself. Then suddenly, she grasped the other girl's arm with both hands. "Please, promise me Mai, make sure you and the others don't go near that house!"

"EH?" Mai gasped. "Why are you telling me this? Wouldn't be better to tell Naru or Madoka, or even John?! Anyone BUT me would probably be better for this you know," she pointed out.

"…You can feel it too, can't you? This house… it's just not right," Masako said, folding her hands back onto her stomach where she had rested them before.

"Well, you are right," Mai nodded. "That place… should just burn," she said, her expression far away again. She quickly returned to the real world and looked to Masako. "I'll try. No promises, though. You know Naru…"

"Sometimes, there should be an 'unfortunately' in that last sentence, so yes, I know he can be quiet stubborn. But at least say you'll try, okay?"

"Alright. I'll try." With that, Mai jumped out and closed the van door after her.

"So?" Ayako asked. "What did she say?"

"How do you know she said anything?" Mai questioned.

"You always ask questions Mai, so she had to have said something," Yasu said honestly.*

"Ah, true," Mai responded before sighing. "Alright, so basically while I was having a moment over here, Masako sensed something weird about our creepy little lake house over there," Mai pointed to the house for a second before letting her hand drop back down, "so she went to investigate. She said something blocked her, which is why she got, um… shocked is probably the best word."

"Anything else?" John asked sincerely.

"Yeah, she told me to tell all of us to stay away from that house," Mai said seriously. "And I have to say…. I agree. I don't like this house."

"So if both of you get the feeling of staying far away from the house…" Monk started.

"…that probably means we'll go in it," Ayako continued, then, staring pointedly at Naru, said, "Isn't that right, NARU?"

"Well, it's a definitely a possibility," he said earnestly.

"Honestly…" Mai sighed before looking at the monk and priestess. "But do you know what they say about people who finish each other sentences?" Silence. "They say that they are in _love_."

This, of course, prompted an argument that quickly went from between Ayako, Mai, and Monk to just between Ayako and Monk.

"Right," Naru said, ignoring the bickering duo. "I want the rest of you to chart where the equipment moved."

"Eh?" Madoka questioned, "Why?"

"If Mai's right, we might be able to see a pattern that we can't actually see," Naru said while opening the back of Lin's van and pulling out some of the many clipboards they had back there. He handed them out to the rest in pairs before heading off with Lin to start. The rest soon followed begrudgedly in pairs like they were indirectly told to.

_**PURE**_

"Naru, why are we at a high school?" Monk asked as the team started getting out of the vans in a high school parking lot.

"Because," Madoka chimed in for Naru, "we need to look for the entrance of the hiking trails, remember? There's no map of them, but surely there are still rumors about them. We already have the local schools' permission to ask the students any questions we need."

"Right, school's about to let out soon?" Mai commented.

"Yep! So we will set up a table here and have a sign to tell them that we'd like to ask a few questions," Madoka confirmed. "So, if you would Mai, help me set up the sign while Lin and Naru set up the table."

"I don't remember saying anything about myself and Lin setting the table up," Naru frowned,

"Well, I did, so go do it," Madoka smiled 'sweetly'. Naru grumbled before grabbing Lin.

"Let's go get the table," the young boss said to his tall assistant as he basically dragged him away.

"Do I have a choice?" Lin basically asked himself as they got to the van and brought out a table.

A few minutes later they had set up a table, a few chairs, and the sign. Just in time, the school bell rang to let the students out of school. After a moment, the first surge of kids came out.

:Hey, I'm going to stay in the van, out of the way, okay?" Mai said before climbing into the van out of sight without waiting for a reply.

"Mai! Don't you think Big Boss is going to get upset if you miss the interviews?" Yasu knocked on the side of the van the girl was hiding in.

A moment of hesitation, Mai responded with, "Trust me… it's better that I don't come out. Tell him I feel a bit ill… cough."

"Mai that is the worst excuse and the worst fake cough I have ever heard," Naru suddenly popped up beside Yasu.

"Big Boss!"

"Ah, Naru…"

"Yasu, go to the interview table for now. I'll deal with Mai," Naru dismissed the glasses-wearing boy.

"I am still RIGHT here, you know," Mai grumbled as Yasu walked off to the table with a nod to his boss.

"Why are you hiding?" Naru asked as he leaned against the van.

"I… I am not hiding!" Mai defended.

"So why don't you come on out?"

"It's… better I didn't…"

"Why do you believe that?"

"Eh?"

A pause. "Why do you believe it's better you didn't help the interviews?" Naru questioned slowly.

"Because…" Mai then sighed. "I guess you could say that I'm sorta… known… around here. People at this school will NOT like me much… or at all…"

"Have you been here before?"

"Not recently, years really…" Mai then laughed out, "You could practically say lifetimes have passed. But secluded places like this… foreigners won't learn anything for months or years about old legends and what not, but the locals never forget a single detail."

"Mai, what did you do to this school to get them to hate you? I honestly didn't think it was possible for any large group of people to hate you."

"Eh, WHAT?" Mai was flustered-did Naru just… complement… HER?! "AH, well, um… it's a long, long story, and I'm just as reluctant to tell you as the locals here probably will be…. But know this now-it was SO not my fault."

"Mai…"

"I'm serious! Anyway, if you want anything good to come out of those interviews, you're going to have to go over there and be all 'tough love' or whatever."

"If I want anything to come out of the interviews? Why wouldn't anything come out of them, anyway?"

"Like I said, locals from secluded places like this often are resistant to answer questions from people that aren't from around here."

"Mai…"

"Just go and either charm or scare the information out of them. I really don't care which, but you'll probably need to use one or both methods, depending on the person."

"You really don't make sense…"

"Since when have I? Now go and do your stuff."

"Aren't you my assistant, not the other way around?"

"Worry about your ego later, now shoo, shoo!"

With a sigh, Naru left the girl in the van-she obviously wasn't coming out-and went to the tables to start heading the interviews himself.

_**PURE**_

"What's with this place?" Ayako said incredulously as she looked at the pile of papers from the interviews. "How on earth will we figure out what's real and what's not?"

"I guess we'll just have to investigate all the leads," Madoka said as she leafed through some of the reports.

"This many, though?" John questioned.

Then, they heard the van door open. Mai stepped out, straightened her clothes, and walked over to the group. "Hey guys, sorry about skipping out…"

"You didn't really miss much," Yasu assured her, "it was pretty boring. Everyone was pretty reluctant to talk until Naru took charge."

"Took charge?" Mai questioned.

"He either scared or charmed them to death, to put it simply," Monk explained.

"Ah, right…" Mai answered. She then noticed the pile of papers on the table. "Whoa, are those the reports?"

"Yep, all of them. And it looks like we'll have to investigate them all," Ayako groaned.

"If you do that, you'll get nowhere," Mai cocked her head.

"What do you mean by that?" Naru, once again, popped out of nowhere and into the conversation.

Mai turned to face him as she explained. "Well," she began, "most likely, you have to think of it as a set of clues, like a scavenger hunt."

"Scavenger hunt?" John piped up.

"Yeah. 'Between the spruce trees' and 'Where the foxes' tails end and begin'," she rattled off the two top reports. "They don't make sense by themselves, right? But what if the 'fox tails' are actually just the shape of two or more spruce trees? They could even have attached themselves at the top, so it's like one big loop. 'Where the foxes' tails end and begin' makes more sense, and 'Between the spruce trees' is a hint towards figuring it out."

After a moment of silence, Yasu finally spoke up. "Who are you, and what have you done with Mai?"

"EH?" the girl questioned, confused.

"Mai isn't this smart, usually."

"Jerk!"

Naru ended the little spiff with his own comment. "It makes sense, though. We just have to find the correlations between the reports. From there, we might be able to actually find something." He then looked up at the school's clock tower. "It's too late to do anything today. Let's head back to the hotel."

"Aren't we going to check on the cameras?" Masako chipped in the conversation for the first time.

"By the time we get there, it'll be dark, and I don't want anyone near that place when it's after sundown," Naru said dismissively.

And so with that, another day of investigation ended.

_**PURE**_

*** 'Yasu said honestly.' I think you should appreciate that. That won't happen often considering that… well… it's Yasu.**

**I finally got this out. And I know, honestly, that I should go work on Blind. There's definitely more demand there. Priorities! …but my internet connection can be splotchy, and technology hates me, so I usually spend most of my time setting everything up in my room to work perfectly. And that, my dear friends, takes time.**

**On another note, this chapter WOULD NOT DIE!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry about how late this is. Corrupted files and such. Either way it's up now so be happy.**

**No, I don't own Ghost Hunt. The story would never get finished—OH WAIT! It didn't anyway. No, I'm not bitter at all. NOPE! What makes you say that?!**

**Well, enjoy!**

_**PURE**_

"_How could you betray us? Me? HER?!" she screamed._

"_Sorry, but I like living," the boy answered. He then grinned sadistically. "OLD GUY! WE'RE IN THE WOODS!"_

"_I heard," a voice answered before a gunshot rang through the woods. The boy fell, instantly dead. "I don't like betrayers. He betrayed you, his little love."_

"_Shut up. I don't want to hear it!" the girl's voice shook in fear. This man… he was…!_

"_And your little sister too. Wasn't she supposed to meet you here again?"_

"_GO AWAY!" the girl screamed before trying to run off. In a flash, the homicidal maniac took an old railroad screw and hammered her hand to a tree._

"_Not so fast! You won't get away again," he laughed as the girl screamed and cried in pain._

"MAI!"

Suddenly, out of her dream, Mai jolted awake to see the girls surrounding her bed, all wearing concerned looks on their faces.

"Ah… what happened?" the brown-haired girl asked. She noticed her face was wet, and that she had been crying in her sleep.

"You looked like you were in pain," Masako told her as she handed Mai a washcloth to dry her face with. Mai nodded in thanks and started wiping away the tears.

"What happened? Do you want me to get the boys?" Madoka asked concerned.

"You had us worried there, you know," Ayako added in as she sat on Mai's bed and rubbed her back soothingly.

"I… had a dream…" Mai muttered.

"Ah, well, I was wondering when you'd have one…" Ayako nodded as she continued to soothe the girl.

Mai and the rest stayed in a velvety silence before Mai interrupted it. "What time is it?" she asked.

"It's about midnight," Madoka said as she looked at her wristwatch. "Naru and Lin are probably still awake. I'm going to go get them."

"But Madoka…!" Mai tried to stop the older woman, but it was pretty useless, and Madoka was well on her way to the boy's room to deliver the news.

"In the meantime," Masako suggested, "why don't you collect your thoughts. I'll get you a damp washcloth- your face has tear tracks."

"Ah, thanks…" Mai said as Masako went into the bathroom to get her the washcloth.

When Masako came back and handed the girl the washcloth, Madoka re-entered the hotel room with the boys.

"Mai, are you okay?" Monk asked for the whole group as he went straight over beside Ayako to soothe Mai.

"I think so…" Mai had a strange look on her face. It seemed as if she knew what was happening.

"Why don't you start explaining what happened," Naru said as he and Lin entered in last and shut the door behind them.

"Well…."

_**PURE**_

Day 4

"… And then I woke up to Ayako, Madoka, and Masako," Mai finished explaining her dream.

"That's one hell of a dream… but you were only observing, right?" Monk said, still right next to Ayako and soothingly rubbing the girl's back.

After a moment, Mai answered with a weary "Yes".

The group stayed in silence for a moment before a sudden gasp came from Madoka.

"Mai!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry, I totally forgot- yesterday was your birthday!"

"Was it?" Mai answered. After a moment of thinking, she piped up, quiet randomly, "Isn't this year a leap year?"

"Well, yes, but what does that matter?" Madoka looked exasperated at the young girl. "And you, Naru, why didn't you say anything? I know you remembered."

"Ah, shouldn't we let Mai go back to sleep?" John tried to deflect the situation.

Madoka sighed. "Alright, fine," she said before looking right at the (belated) birthday girl. "But you better expect some embarrassment when you get up. No one is allowed to have a birthday in my presence without getting totally embarrassed at least once. Isn't that right, _Naru_?"

The said dark-clad boy simply looked at her, then Mai, and turned to leave.

"He's got the right idea," Lin said. "We should leave her be for now. But, Taniyama?"

"Yeah?"

"Good luck."

Insert gulp from Mai, here.

_**PURE**_

Later on, the group woke up and went down to the hotel's breakfast.

Mai sighed as she picked at her food. "What's wrong, Mai?" Monk asked her. The girl looked up to look at the monk before tossing her utensils onto her plate and leaning back in her chair.

"Today's going to either be very long or very short," she answered.

"Eh?" Ayako voiced in.

"Ah, well… today's the only day I can do something really important. Depending on the situation… it'll either be a long day or a short one," Mai said, slightly vague in her explanation.

"That… made things about as clear as mud," Monk said flatly.

"What is it you need to do? Can we help?" John asked like the good friend he is.

Mai paled. "No way are you allowed to help. You technically _can_ but it could be bad. And… I can't really tell you what I have to do. It's… it's not so much complicated as it is weird and hard to believe."

"You realize that with our line of work, we're very used to unusual, right?" Madoka chimed in. "I mean, in our group alone we have someone with contracts to demons, a world-renown parapsychologist who took down a demi-god but has a bad personality, a television psychic who talks to the dead on a regular basis, a college student who could charm the pants off a dress, a monk who's a rock star, a doctor who talks to trees and is also a priestess, a Catholic priest from Australia, me who can find information about a pebble on a random sidewalk if I so wanted, and you, someone who's powers grow and has faced down a demon and stepped out of her own body multiple times."

"Ah, you have a point. I guess we are a strange group…." Yasu replied. "And yes, I do believe I can charm the pants off a dress. I should try that some time."

"Young man!" Monk said, "Don't do anything shady!"

"Of course not," Yasu smiled mischievously, "Not when Madoka still has yet to embarrass Mai."

"Oh, that's right!" Madoka said cheerfully. "Thanks for reminding me!" Mai paled, then glared at Yasu who smiled back. Lin and Naru looked at her sympathetically. Let's appreciate that sentence for a moment. LIN and NARU looked SYMPATHETIC for someone. How often does _that_ happen?

Answer-never.

…Which means that Mai has more to fear from Madoka than any ghost, spirit, demon, demi-god, or mentally deranged psychic could ever dish out.

Madoka stood up and went over to where Mai sat. She grabbed Mai and pulled her to a standing position. Then, she moved the chair out a bit before making Mai stand on the chair.

"Wait, Madoka, what are you-" But Mai was too late in questioning it.

Madoka cleared her voice before turning to the room. "Ladies and gentlemen," Madoka said in a loud voice, "If I may have your attention, this lovely young lady is turning seventeen today!" Confused cheers and clapping went through the room as Mai went bright red. She tried to get down from the chair but Madoka wouldn't let her. "Don't even think about it. Don't you dare," Madoka growled at Mai. Mai stiffly stood straight up and stopped struggling. "NOW THEN, how about we sing Happy Birthday to our little girl?! Happy birthday to you~"

Soon the whole room was singing, Mai had a face to rival a tomato, and everyone at their table other than Lin and Naru were between laughing and singing at the poor girl, and Masako was grinning like a Cheshire cat the whole time.

After the song was over and everyone clapped, Mai got down and pulled her chair up to the table. There, she sulked in her seat as her face flamed.

"Aww, come on, it wasn't that bad," Monk patted her should lightly, although his laughing while he said it wasn't helping in the least bit.

"Ya know, it could be worse," Madoka said, chewing on some of her food. She swallowed and continued talking. "You _could_ have been like the twins at their twelve birthday-"

"We do not speak of that day," Naru interrupted her. Lin seemed like he wasn't sure whether or not to chuckle or to be sympathetic.

"Aw, but you looked so cute-"

"Madoka."

"You and Gene were looked so nice in those-"

"Stop. Now."

"Pretty, identical-"

"If you value your life-"

"Pink. Dresses."

There was a silence as everyone heard these words. Heck, John dropped the utensils he held.

"Pink… dresses?" Mai said slowly.

"Yep. It was one of the few times Gene actually had the same identical scowl as Naru without forcing it," Madoka beamed.

How was Naru right now? He was glaring at his teacher, and he looked as if he was planning murder.

Knowing him, he already had that figured out since his twelve birthday party. Heck, he could be slowly poisoning her as they spoke.

Oh the joy that is Madoka.

_**PURE**_

Back to all seriousness a while later, Naru and Lin had spent their time trying to find possible places that could be the entrance to the hiking trail. They had a general location, so they were going to head down in the cars to investigate.

"Mai, you look nervous," Monk commented when they got out at a seemingly random spot on the side of the road. "A bit pale too…"

"It's nothing, seriously!" Mai waved him off. The monk shrugged, letting it go for now, but keeping a watchful eye on her all the same.

After a while of walking, Mai stopped cold, her eyes fixed on a spot in the tree line. Slowly, headless of the rest of the group calling her, she walked over.

"Mai, wait up!" Ayako complained as they ran over. Mai looked back at them before darting into the woods quickly.

"Mai-" John was cut short by the fact that, even if she ran and hid, they should have seen that there was a sign that Mai was there. Something. Anything.

However, there was nothing.

The rest of the team caught up to John to see the exact same thing he did.

"Where's… where's Mai?" Monk bravely asked the question on everyone's mind.

A whisper of wind blew through the trees softly. It was the only answer he got.

_**PURE**_

**I… apologize for leaving it there. I didn't want to go over the amount of words I usually put, I had waited long enough to post this, and it seemed like a good stopping place.**

**(The insides of the minds of the readers- **_**WHAT PART OF YOUR SOON-TO-BE-BLOODY BODY THOUGHT THAT THIS WAS A GOOD PLACE TO STOP?!**_

**I'll…. Try to be quick. UNTIL NEXT TIME!**


	5. Chapter 5

**So I am getting REALLY tempted to write a Ghost Hunt story with vampires… Or a pirate one… figure skating…**

**I do not own Ghost Hunt. You should probably be thankful for that.**

_**PURE**_

"There's no way a person can disappear in less than five seconds!" Monk yelled as he and the rest of the gang searched for Mai.

"Tell me that when you find Mai!" Ayako shouted from another, more distant part of the woods.

"It's almost dark…" Madoka said, her tone fearful. They searched for hours, and had gone quite a ways in and around the area Mai had just vanished in.

"We'll find her," Lin assured her, briefly turning to put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly before continuing to look around for the girl. He said that, but it was getting more and more unlikely that the girl would be found. Hell, even his shiki hadn't even found anything.

Just as the sun set, the team met up on the trail. Yes, it had been the hiking trail they were looking for. It was slightly overgrown, but seemed quite innocent. Of course, if you're a ghost hunter, nothing is quite what it seems.

"What do we do, Naru? It's almost dark. As much as we need to find Mai, it could also be dangerous to stay out here much longer," Masako said what everyone else dared not think about.

"If we leave Mai out here there's no telling what could happen to her," Naru said, his eyes closed as he assumed his typical thinking pose.

As the team thought, something strange happened. Little wisps showed up out of nowhere, barely visible as they rose above the crest of a hill further up the trail. "Uh, Boss," Yasu said, trying his best not to freak out. He was the first to spot them, but… he wasn't a psychic, he shouldn't see this! "Boss, what are those?" Naru looked at Yasu then looked up the trail to where the wisps had shown up.

"Wisps…" Naru breathed out before running up the trail, the rest following closely behind him. They made it up the small hill and saw before them… a graveyard. Well, they assumed it was a graveyard.

Rows upon rows of either large stones or twigs and branches shaped like crosses spread through the expanse of the clearing. It looked old, very old, and many of the supposed 'tombstones' had things on them. A necklace. A scarf. Hats. Articles of clothing or personal items that belonged to the people the graves belonged to. The wisps were all over, and it looked like there was no end to them. They just appeared and floated up towards the sky.

A strange, melodic sound came through the air. It almost sounded like… "Crying?" John questioned, unsure of what he was hearing.

"They are crying, John," Masako said meekly. She looked faint. "I'm not sure why, but there's so much sadness… and pain…" Masako chose then to pass out.

"Easy there," Ayako said as she and Monk eased her down against a tree. "What the hell is this?" she questioned no one in particular, but subconsciously looking towards Naru.

"I wish I knew," Naru solemnly answered. "For now, don't go in there, and when or if we do, no one goes in alone. There's obviously a high spirit concentration, and while they seem peaceful but sad right now, we don't know what'll happen when we enter their 'territory'."

They all ended up sitting down or leaning against a tree as they watched the wisps and listen to their beautifully sad song. The sun set more, but it didn't even get cold. You'd think that, surely, not only with the night coming but being near so many spirits, one would get at least a cold chill. None such thing occurred. It was almost peaceful. Almost.

However, three things to consider are:

They were sorta lost (not entirely) in unfamiliar woods on an almost not there trail, and as soon as they left the spirits' glow, it would be completely dark, and they had no flashlights. Any number of dangerous animals could cross their path here, and they wouldn't know until it was too late.

Also, at the end of the trail-and they had no idea where the end WAS- is a house of murder with a possibly homicidal maniac who may or may not be able to go into the woods and kill them. They were also literally sitting next to spirits as they drifted, and any one of them could possibly attack at any time.

And, most importantly, _Mai was still missing._

"Yasu," Madoka said, seeming to have a revelation. "Do you think… do you think this is the graveyard of the victims?"

"Huh?" Yasu replied before thinking a moment. "Now that you say it, it most likely is. But… something's not right."

"What is it, young man?" Monk asked, keeping an eye on Masako who was still unconscious.

"Well, they've been searching for this place for years. They must have at least found the trail and just as easily followed it. And yet…" Yasu trailed off.

"They didn't," Naru finished for him. "So, either they are incompetent, or…"

"We're being lead," Lin said with realization in his tone.

"By who?" John questioned.

"Who went missing and could have made this trail visible?" Naru said pointedly.

"You mean to say Mai did this? She was out of our sight for five seconds and vanished! There's no way she could be that fast," Ayako said.

"Ayako's right," Madoka said, adopting an eerily similar thinking pose to Naru's. "She'd have to be a spirit, or a super runner to do that. While she may be fast, she isn't that fast. She's also has solid as you and me, and she most definitely has a heartbeat-I've felt it."

"So maybe a spirit kidnapped Mai and then made the trail? But why make a trail, if not to confuse us," John said.

"Guys," Monk said, his face pale. "What if… what if that murderer kidnapped her…" He gulped-he did NOT like the conclusion he came to. "What if he kidnapped her… and led us her perhaps not to lead us, but to send a message."

"A message…. If it's a graveyard, then the message would be…" Ayako never finished her statement.

No one wanted to.

No one would.

The melodically sad, beautiful, and now seemingly sinister song continued.

_**PURE**_

… **I can feel it… one of you guys want to kill me now…**


	6. Chapter 6

**Well, here's an update. Well, actually I'm writing this in the middle of a power outage. Gotta love thunderstorms. I don't have internet currently, but it doesn't matter to you guys because if I'm posting, I have my internet back…**

**Why am I even mentioning this?**

**Anyway, before I start… to my dear reviewer—I told you I'd do this, didn't I? (they'll know who they are and what I'm talking about in a minute)**

**ONWARD—HO!**

_**BLIND**_

Thunder boomed through the sky.

"This is just great," Ayako grumbled unhappily. "Mai's missing, it's dark, we're camping outside a graveyard with a bunch of ghosts, and now it's going to storm." She looked over to Masako. "AND Masako's still conked out."

"Don't worry, everything will be alright, I'm sure," John tried to pacify, even though he didn't have much faith in that himself.

A scream ripped through the air. A very familiar scream.

"MAI!" Monk shouted, successfully waking up Masako.

"Where did it come from, does anyone know?" Madoka questioned, looking around as if that would answer the question.

"Sister Mai?" a young voice asked. They turned in the same direction to all see a little boy in a yukata. He looked to only be about eight. "Oh no, today's that day, isn't it?"

"Who are you?" Naru asked coldly. He did not like the feeling he was getting from this case.

"I'll guide you to Sister Mai. She'll need your help. But… if she says to do something, you need to do it," the boy ignored Naru's question.

"Why should we trust what you're saying?" Ayako, ever the questioner, asked the little boy.

"If you don't listen… you'll end up like me," the boy had a soft smile before turning into a small ball of light.

"He's… a ghost?" Yasu questioned. He was on research for good reason. One—he couldn't see ghosts, he wasn't psychic, so on. Two—he just wasn't cut out for the active field!

The little light that was the boy moved up and down before moving towards the trail again. When no one followed, it stopped, as if waiting.

"I guess… we'll have to trust what we can," Naru said before walking up to the light. "Miss Hara, Yasu, Ms. Matsuzaki, Madoka, I want you four to stay here. Lin, John, Monk, and myself will go follow this kid."

"Hey!" Ayako and Madoka spoke up to protest before being cut off by Monk.

"Listen to him—if we have to run, Masako's not in the shape to do so. Yasu and Madoka, neither of you are spiritualists, and we don't know what's going to happen. Ayako, if need be, you can do a cleansing with all the trees here," Monk pointed out calmly as he made to follow Naru. "Lin, John, Naru, and myself are more able to deal with something spiritual, plus we don't know to trust this thing," he pointed to the light.

"Alright, we'll stay," Ayako begrudgedly agreed for the group of four staying.

"Madoka, Yasu, check out the graveyard. Take Ms. Matsuzaki and Hara with you," Naru ordered as his little group started to move down the trail following the light.

"Okay. Come on guys, let's do some investigating," Madoka said. Thunder sounded through the sky again.

And so, they split. One to the graves, the other following a questionable guide to an unknown location with hope that the mystery location contained Mai.

_**BLIND**_

Naru, Monk, Lin, and John followed the ghost light that lit the trail. They knew that they had to keep up with the light or they'd get lost in three seconds flat. They went over bushes and undergrowth, but all the same they could tell—this had once been a trail.

Another scream ripped through the sounds of the night. Mai's scream. They didn't know what was going on, how she was, or what they were going to do exactly, but every few minutes since they started down this trail they could hear her scream, and that just made them quicken their pace.

It had been half an hour since they started.

Suddenly, they burst through a break in the trees. They found themselves in a place they had actually least suspected.

The house they were investigating. Of course. The thunder was getting louder and louder, and the wind was picking up…

Still, the ghost light didn't stop. It went to a certain point on the property before stopping. The light turned back into the little boy wearing a yukata. He faced the house as he spoke. "This is as far as I can go. She's in there…" the boy said, pointing towards the wicked house. He turned to the four men behind him. "Good luck…" he said before disappearing suddenly.

They stood there, staring at the place the boy had been. That is, until a scream ripped them out of their trance. "Mai!" This time, it was John that shouted before running towards the house, his holy water already in hand.

Monk started running after. "Come on guys, what are you waiting for? That's as close to an invitation as you're going to get!" he yelled back at Naru and Lin. Then they too ran towards the house, not sure of what they'd find but hopeful that they would find Mai.

Back in the graveyard, the four of them had also heard the screams and thunder as they investigated the graveyard. The spirits hadn't stopped their sad crying, leaving an eerie music-like quality in the air. As they looked at each graveyard, they found that the names had been carved on the wood that made up the headstones. They decided to record who was at each grave and what was at their graves.

Satoru Matsumoto had an obi.

Yoshiro Kataoka had an old scarf.

Yuya Matsushita had a stuffed bird.

But… they had a very chilling discovery to write down.

It had to be a coincidence, right? It was a common first name… and maybe she got named after someone else in her family.

There was no way that this recording was actually her, right?

Right.

If only they had a phone or some way to tell the other half of their group what they had found.

Mai Taniyama had a set of keys at her grave.

_**BLIND**_

**Okay, so the weather conditions here have actually no correlation as to why I put a storm in the chapter. I sorta already planned that…**

… **but you guys are still about to kill me regardless.**

… **and it'll probably only increase. If it makes you happy, the ending is actually a somewhat happy one. Bittersweet, I guess… but if you guys kill me before then I'd probably understand.**

**AH! I left you guys a bit of an Easter Egg in this chapter, in other words, there's a little surprise in there. It has absolutely no correlation with the plot, but if you see it, well, congrats to you! I might tell you next chapter… I'm not sure…**


	7. Chapter 7

**Okay, so I'm going to answer the Easter Egg thing I gave you.**

**2takuya TOTALLY went above and beyond, so I'm just going to use that response since I couldn't word it better myself. **

"**Satoru Matsumoto was the creator of Mobile Suit Gundam, and due to the fact that Japanese writers tend to be wearing robes of some sort, it would be no surprise if Satoru Matsumoto often wore an obi.**

**Yoshiro Kataoka, also known as Hagera, is an anime producer and production designer. A lot of his other works, like Hime-chan's Ribon! and Akazukin Chacha, were published in Ribon Magazine. Due to the overuse of Ribon's and hooded capes and whatnot, and taking into acount the fact that Yoshiro Kataoka is male, it would not be a long stretch to say he was buried with an old scarf.**

**Yuya Matsushita; actor, dancer, and singer; performed the ending song "Bird" for Black Butler season 2. Therefore, being buried with a bird would come as no surprise, because majority of people would recognize him from that song.**

**And the whole Mai Taniyama being buried with a set of keys . . . despite the fact that there was only ever the key to her old house mentioned, it's still not that hard to figure out what is being implied at this situation . . ."**

**Two things to add to that amazing review. One- Satoru Matsumoto and Yoshiro Kataoka are both producers of Ghost Hunt. Two- in the novels (usually I leave this to Blind…) there's a point where Naru guesses what's in her pocket, which is a key ring with a bunch of keys. She asks how he knew, and he says that he's been hearing them since the first case. However, I only expected the connection with the key that Mai has of her old house to be made, since not many have access to the translated novels, and I only have bits and pieces of it…. No big deal, and I seriously didn't expect that whole thing to be figured out…**

**In honor of that, I'm doing something I usually don't do, and I wasn't actually planning to do this at all… but…**

**2takuya, this chapter is dedicated to you!**

_**PURE**_

"Mai? Are you in here?" Lin called out cautiously as he and the rest entered the old decrepit building.

"Mai!" Naru yelled. He wouldn't admit it, but he was really worried. Though he had difficulty acknowledging it himself—nonetheless for others to see—, he really did love Mai. "Where is she?" he mumbled to himself worriedly.

He was scared.

No, that's not right…

He was terrified.

As the group explored the building carefully, they found that everything, EVERYTHING had bloodstains on it. The carpet, the walls, the floorboards, the cabinets, the curtains, the ceiling, everything had blood somewhere on it. Most of it wasn't fresh, however… The newer drops of blood were not ignored. Perhaps not vocally acknowledged or pointed out to each other, but they were not ignored.

Another scream ripped through the air, accompanied by a boom of thunder. The scream seemed to come from upstairs.

"Please… stop this…" a female voice echoed through the house. It was Mai…

The team didn't waste a second before running straight up the stairs.

What they found… they weren't exactly prepared.

When they arrived at the second floor, they found themselves in a hallway with many doors. One was left ajar. Naru ran ahead of the rest and pushed his way into the room. There, Mai was in the middle of the room, tied up to a chair. There was nothing else in the room.

"Please… stop…" she whimpered. Though she was faced directly towards the door and gazing straight at Naru, her eyes were glazed over, and she didn't seem to see anything.

"Mai!" Naru yelled as he ran towards her. He put his hands on her shoulders and shook her, hoping she'd come back to reality and just look at him.

Tell him that she's alright, she's fine, that they should go home.

Blame him for letting her get kidnapped and for not coming for her sooner.

Anything but gaze distantly at a terror he couldn't fight.

"Come on Mai, come back to me…" Naru said, still desperately trying to get her attention. "Please…"

The others came in to find Naru desperately trying to help Mai. They ran over to her and started working on the ropes that bounded her.

"It's okay Mai, we're right here," John's accented voice said as he worked on the ropes around her arms with Monk.

"Snap out of it Mai! Come on," Monk's voice sounded frustrated as he worked on the ropes on the other side of where John worked, and it was unclear whether he was talking to her or the ropes he was trying to untangle in his last sentence.

"We need a knife or something to cut them with," Lin assessed the knots used.

"What you need is to get out of here…" a voice echoed from the corner of the room behind and to Mai's right, or your left, if you were to face her.

The team turned to find an older woman of about twenty or thirty looking at them. She wore a kimono and a serious face, blood splatters here and there on the bottom hem of her plum-purple robes.

"And who might you be?" Naru questioned, leaning closer to Mai as if to protect her.

"Someone who wishes someone gave me that advice when I was younger. That girl… she can't leave even if you got her to the door," the woman said solemnly. "Also, the girl won't move even if you untie her. This is her memory…"

"Her memory?" Lin caught on.

"She's been here before. She didn't make it out."

"What? Are you implying-" Monk was cut off.

"Mai Taniyama is dead, and has been for a long, long time."

_**PURE**_

**So… part one of her secret revealed. Don't worry, it gets better. Or worse, depending on your point of view. **

**Fun fact- I actually considered making this M for the goriness that I wanted to write, but, meh, decided not to. Maybe I'll make another version with more gory details… Ah, none in this chapter, but in others… MWAHAHAHAHA!**

…**But you lot might still kill me…**


	8. Chapter 8

**So I'm doing this quickly…. This starts to either explain or confuse things for you, so good luck!**

**I don't own Ghost Hunt…**

**And I keep laughing because you seriously don't know where this is going to go…**

_**PURE**_

POV- Mai

The story of how I died isn't pretty.

Never was.

Never will be.

What sucks the MOST is I have to keep reliving it…

And this time, I have Naru, Lin, Monk, and John watching it…

They really should have left when Tomoe asked them to. She was such a nice lady.

… But now my friends have to watch this.

Damn. I hoped they wouldn't. This is the first time anyone else got dragged back to this house with me…

And so, the vision started.

I had no control over my body.

I would only be faintly aware that I did this before, the only difference from the first time-

I'm so excited! It's my birthday, and we were going into the woods on a hike! I loved nature, so when I was told that Thando had found some hiking trail that was supposedly cursed, I just couldn't wait to go on it!

I suppose I love mysteries and adventure too…

Well, I also love Thando. I know that I may not understand love yet, but I think we have that bond.

I really do…

I had my bag all packed. I looked around my room contently. The futon was put into the cabinet and the tatami mat floor was clean. Everything was in tip-top shape. I got up and stretched out a bit. I wore an older, more durable kimono for the hike and had packed a few essentials with me.

_The guys are in the corner. They're confused, but seemed to piece it together…_

Wait, what?

Ah, nevermind. I set my long hair into a bun so it hopefully wouldn't get caught on branches as we hiked.

Just had a wait a few moments until Thando arrived with the others. He sure is taking his time…

Ah, wait, since when were we hiking? Oh, right, Thando arrived and we've been hiking for around three hours now. I could still feel the warmth as my parents hugged me and kissed me on the forehead before I left, taking my brother and sister with me.

_It's because you'll never feel that warmth again._

What? Nevermind. It doesn't matter.

"Sister, look! A house!" my little brother, Toshiyuki , tugged on my sleeve and pointed.

"Are we sure we should go there?" another boy companion said. He was one of my best friends, as well as Atelic's. His name is Yasushi. *1 "This _is_ a cursed trail. Who knows what's there?"

"Oh come on, in such a peaceful place? Yeah right," my sister, who is older but also more foolish, said as she marched ahead towards the house. Oh, her name is Sute.

I just giggled and followed my slightly idiotic sister as she went ahead towards the house. "Hey, Thando, where did you say you came from again?" I asked. His hair, eyes, and hair were much to light for him to be Japanese, plus his other tell-tale features suggest it.

"I never did tell you, huh?" Thando shrugged. "We moved here shortly after I was born, so I'm more or less as clueless as you are. I never really cared. As far as I was concerned, I was Japanese like you guys."

"Huh. Is that so…"

"Hey, lovebirds! There's a man up there. Yasushi is talking to him now," Sute said.

Oh, I suppose Thando and I had started to trail behind.

Ah, but it's so pretty up here!

_**PURE**_

A body. There's a body here.

I woke up, and there was a body on my door.

I say body…. But it's more like a mangled corpse.

The owner of the house was standing beside it. Ah, what was his name…?

"Shirushi. That's her name. At least, I think it was a her," the man muttered, seeming more to himself than anything else. "Either a boyish girl or a girlish boy… Either way, the shrieks were most satisfying…" the man started to giggle. "I wonder what sounds you'll make?"

I didn't wait a second before bolting away to another door that connected to Toshiyuki's room. I had to make sure my brother was safe-

I never made it that far.

A hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me back forcefully into the first bedroom. I hit the floor hard and for a few disorienting moments I couldn't hear anything and my vision blurred and had tons of white fog in it.

"Nuh-uh-uh," the man scolded. "You're not allowed to leave."

I concentrated on that voice and found the man standing over me, a blood-crusted black katana raised well over his head—and over my chest. Giving no time for second thoughts, I concentrated on his shoulder.

I had only done it a couple of times, usually a spark at most…

… But a spark was all that was needed. Suddenly there was a small fire on his right shoulder. He gasped in pain and grasped it, pulling off to the side and tossing his katana aside for a brief moment. I took the opportunity and ran.

I needed to get the others and get out of here.

_**PURE**_

I don't know how exactly we came to be running through the forest. I had to cause more fires, and honestly I was ready to drop down dead regardless of the maniac hunting us.

Toshiyuki was held in my arms. "Don't worry," I said as tears streamed down my cheeks. I knew that I wouldn't get out alive no matter what. But Toshiyuki… He was my younger brother. I loved him. He had to escape.

He was just a boy!

"Sister…" Toshiyuki whispered fearfully.

"It's okay! I promise," I half shrieked.

He stayed quiet. He knew what was going on. The boy wasn't stupid, after all.

… Thando and Yasushi were running somewhere around us, and my sister…

…Sute… She… She stayed back to buy us time.

She was the oldest, and she suggested staying in the first place. Sute felt responsible.

So she made us leave without her.

_It's selfish of me to leave her, but she was horrible at directions and not very fast. Someone needed to carry Toshiyuki, and we weren't going to give him to someone he doesn't know as well at a time like this!_

If she somehow survived, I was to meet her at this one specific tree. It was rather distinctive and large, though I didn't know the name of said tree.

There was a snap of twigs behind me…

_**PURE**_

3rd POV

The vision had stopped for now. Mai was untied, panting in her chair like she hadn't been tied in the first place. The others were astonished and a bit out of breath through the whole experience.

There was silence for a moment.

"YOU IDIOTS!" Mai yelled out of nowhere, still panting.

"Mai," Monk began.

"No, listen to me. You guys need to leave. You saw the vision. I'm not alive. Just go before you die too," the girl had a solid resolve.

"I want answers," Naru glared, "and you have them."

"We don't have _time_ for a tea break right now! Just go, okay? If I could explain, I would, but I wasn't entirely aware of this either," Mai said—though perhaps 'yelled as quietly as possible' would be more appropriate.

"How were you not aware?" Lin said.

None of the boys were going to move without some sort of info or incentive.

Just great.

Mai huffed. "It's like this—I'm not sure exactly how, but every few years my spirit wakes up here, and every time, that stupid murdering idiot somehow sends me into another body. Actually… I guess you could say I'm the spirit of unborn children. I 'possess' them in a way. Although I'm not actually aware that it isn't my own body. I grow and mature purely through spiritual power and the expectation that I would, in fact, develop like a normal person. At around my seventeenth birthday, the time of which I died in the first place, I grow aware of the life I first lived. I don't remember much of the lives I lived in a false body, but my actual life… it's almost like two people are inside me until I settle it within myself. Look, I don't know how it works exactly, and I don't care to. All I know is that I have to destroy this evil spirit and this is my one opportunity to do so for various factors. Now that I've informed you of something, if you don't leave, the others in the graveyard might be captured."

"In the graveyard?" John said.

"Yes, the graveyard. A surprising amount of people died there, including myself," Mai said. "Now seriously, leave. I am legitimately old enough to be even Lin's grandmother."

The others still didn't move.

_If they think they can help at this point… they are literally DEAD wrong._

"If you won't go peacefully…" Mai threatened before a rather violent poltergeist began, "I'll have some of my friends make you."

Before the four men knew it, they were dragged out of the house none-too-gently by Mai's apparent 'friends'. Heck, Monk was pretty sure he bruised a rib or five going down the staircase.

Then they saw it.

The pattern on the ground that the cameras moved in?

Yes…

They were graves.

_**PURE**_

***1 So, Yasushi means Honest and Peaceful, Thando means Love, Toshiyuki means Alert and Happy, and Sute means Forsaken. Shirushi means Evidence. At least, that's what they better mean. And they all should be Japanese as well. If I am wrong… I'm sorry. -I know that Thando is NOT Japanese, but he's foreigner anyway.-**

**So… it's a bit longer than usual… And I'm working on Blind but I decided that just getting anything uploaded would be great. I finally got rid of one certain file—How to Haunt—last week, so although it isn't even popular, I'm just glad it's GONE. And before you guys think that this thing is coming to a close soon…**

**Hahahaha, you're funny.**


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